Cricket in Bangladesh: Challenges of governance

and match-fixing

Iftekharuzzaman,

Rumana Sharmin, Nure Alam

Dhaka, 23 February 2016

Global Corruption Report

SPORT

Examples of TI Research on Corruption• Corruption Perceptions Index – International ranking of countries based on

international surveys: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015

• Global Corruption Barometer (GCB): Worldwide Survey of people’s experience & perception of corruption: www.transparency.org/gcb2013/report

• Bribe Payers Index (BPI): Survey of corruption in international business -ranking of likelihood of firms from leading exporting countries to bribe abroad. http://bpi.transparency.org/bpi2011/

• National Integrity System assessments (NIS): Series of in-country qualitative research assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of the key institutions that promote good governance and prevent corruption. http://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/nis

• Transparency In Corporate Reporting (TRAC): analysis of the extent of disclosure and reporting on anti-corruption measures by the world’s largest companies http://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/trac

• Global Corruption Report (GCR): In-depth expert research on corruption and governance in a selected sector/issue http://www.transparency.org//gcr

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Introducing GCR Sport

• The theme of GCR this year is Sport. Previous editions focused on: Education, Climate Change, Private Sector, Water, Health, Judicial Systems, Political Corruption, Access to Information, etc

• GCR Sport examines governance deficits, corruption and corruption risks across sport around the world

• It brings together contributions of over 60 researchers, practitioners, academics and over 150 peer reviewers and experts

• The objective is to advance global understanding and advocacy based on research, experience and expertise for promoting better governance and corruption control in sport

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Contents• Sports governance: autonomy principle in sport; obstacles

to accountability in national and international sports governance; regional overviews of corruption and corruption risks

• Major events: influence of money and private interests; who bids and why; problems with major event impact assessments; the Olympic and World Cup bidding processes; national and regional lessons learned; financial transparency

• Match-fixing: where the global focus needs to be; the role of the betting industry; challenges and experiences of prevention

• Stakeholder participation: role of the International Olympic Committee; international sports organizations; multilateral agencies; sponsors; athletes; supporters; journalists; and the anti-corruption movement.

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Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.

Governance and integrity of sport is indispensable

not only for the good of the game but for the good of society as a whole

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GCR 2016: Highlights

Sport is a multi-billion dollar business (more than

US$145 billion annually) engaging billions of people

Corruption in sport is nothing new, the recent

pervasiveness of poor governance and corruption

scandals threatens to undermine all the joy and hope

that sport brings

Governance deficit and corruption exists in nearly all

types and categories of sport - Football, Athletics,

Tennis, Cricket, cycling, badminton, ice hockey,

handball, etc.

Governance deficit and corruption at the international

level extends to the regional and national level

GCR Sport makes a series of recommendations on

governance with particular emphasis on transparency,

accountability and participation

Cricket in Bangladesh:

challenges of governance and match-fixing

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Objective, Scope and Methodology

The objective of this case study is to analyze two

parallel sets of challenges – governance of the BCB

and the problem of match-fixing with particular focus

on BPL (season 1 in 2012 and season 2 in 2013)

Data and information have been collected from primary

and secondary sources.

Primary sources - interviews with former and

current players, BCB officials, journalists and

relevant experts

Secondary sources - websites, media reports and

relevant documents including rules and regulations

Data Collection period: September 2014-April 2015

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Cricket in Bangladesh

Bangladesh – an increasingly important actor in global

cricket

Cricket is a symbol of national pride, hope, joy and

unity in Bangladesh

As with other cricket-playing nations, competitive

matches in Bangladesh were played until recently in

the form of test matches and one-day tournaments

between national teams

BPL emerged as a competition among franchisee-clubs

or business enterprises and hence made profit-making

a key factor in cricket

It also expanded the scope of contamination by global

trend of match-fixing, spot-fixing and illegal betting

BCB’s governance deficit added to the risks

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Scandals in Cricket – a global problem

Governance:

• ICC influenced by money power; instead of complying with Governance Reform proposals of the Wolf Report it pushed ahead with discriminatory, disenfranchising, non-transparent initiatives, creating scope of abuse of power and corruption

Match-fixing

• Nothing new – started in 1998 with such big names as Shane Warne and Mark Waugh and followed through in South Africa (at least 4); India (5), Pakistan (6), New Zealand (1), West Indies (1), Sri Lanka (1), Kenya (1), Bangladesh (1)

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Sl Country/Player Allegation/Action taken

Australia (2)

1-2 Shane WarneMark Waugh

“Secretly penalized” for accepting money from Indian bookmaker to reveal the pitch information in 1994-95. ACB was widely criticized for cover up

Pakistan (6)

3 Salim Malik First cricketer to get jailed. Banned for life in 2000 for offering bribes. Overturned in 2008

4 Ata-ur-Rahman Banned for life in 2000 for dealings with bookmakers. Lifted in 2006

5 Mohammad Amir

Banned for 5 years for delivering no-balls for cash against England in August 2010. Sentenced to six months in prison for conspiracy to cheat and accept corrupt payments.

6 Mohammad Asif

Banned for 7 years for delivering no-balls for cash against England in August 2010. Sentenced to 12 months in prison for conspiracy to cheat and accept corrupt payments.

7 Salman Butt Banned for 10 years incl 5 years suspended for bowling no-balls against England in August 2010. Sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for conspiracy to cheat accept corrupt payments.

Global Cricketing Scandal – An overview

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Global Cricketing Scandals – an overview

Sl Country/Player Allegation/Action taken

8 Danish Kaneria Banned for life for “match irregularities” in England in 2010

India (5)

9 MohammadAzharuddin

Banned for life in 2000 for associating with bookmakers and introducing Hansie Cronje to betting. Lifted in 2006

10 Ajay Sharma Banned for life in 2000 for associating with bookmakers. Lifted in 2014

11 ManojPrbhakar

Banned for 5 years in 2000. Tried to implicate Kapil Dev and others but backfired as he was found guilty himself.

12 Ajay Jadeja Banned for 5 years for associating with bookmakers. Overturned in 2003.

13 Sreesanth Banned for life for giving away 14 runs in an over for payment by bookies in an IPL match in 2013.

South Africa (4)

14 Hansie Cronje Banned for life for accepting payment from bookmakers for forecasting matches.

15 Hershelle Gibbs Banned for 6 months for initially agreeing to under-perform in an ODI, though later reneged and scored 74 off 53 balls. 12

Sl Country/Player Allegation/Action taken

16 Henry Williams Banned for 6 months for initially agreeing to under-perform in an ODI game at Nagpur by could deliver for injury.

17 Gulam Bodi Banned for 20 years for attempting to fix matches in20-Twenty matches in South Africa

18 West Indies (1)Marlon Smuels

Banned for 2 years for passing on team information to an alleged bookmaker

19 Kenya (1)Maurice Odumbe

Banned for 5 years for receiving money from bookmakers

20 New Zealand (1)Lou Vincent

Banned for 3 years for failure to report an approach to fix a game in BPL. Later banned for life in English Domestic Cricket

21 Sri Lanka (1)KaushalLokrararachi

Banned for 18 months for failure to report an approach to fix a game in the BPL.

22 Bangladesh (1)Mohammad Ashraful

Banned for 8 years (later reduced to 5 years) for spot-fixing.

Global Cricketing Scandals – an overview

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Cricket Governance and BCB

The BCB is responsible for the operation and

development of cricket in the country, which functions

as an autonomous body affiliated with the NSCB within

the MOYS

The Parliamentary Standing Committee of the MOYS is

also expected to oversee the operations of the BCB

BCB is governed by its own constitution and is

composed of 27 board directors, a board president and

20 operational committees

BCB directors amended the BCB’s constitution on 1

March 2012 aligned with International Cricket Council

(ICC) guidelines so that government interference in

cricket governance is minimal

Following this, election to the Board was held for the

first time (12 October 2013). The current President was

elected unanimously 14

The BCB generates income from: TV rights, sponsorship,

donations, income-sharing with the ICC and tournament

fees, investments and government allocations

Domestic league and tournaments

National School Cricket Tournament

Young Tigers (U14, U16 and U18) National Cricket

Tournament

Women’s First Division Cricket League

Dhaka Premier Division Women’s Cricket League

Dhaka First Division Cricket League

National Cricket League (NCL)

National Cricket Championship (NCC)

Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL)

Bangladesh Premier League (BPL)

• Season 1 (2012); Season 2 (2013); Season 3 (2015)

Cricket Governance and the BCB

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Anti-Corruption legal & policy

framework

The Bangladesh Penal Code (1860) and the Anti-

Corruption Commission Act (2004) – applicable as for

any other citizen

The BCB has an Anti-Corruption Code consistent

with the ICC Code. In case of complaint against

players and relevant personnel, BCB will formulate

– a provisional Disciplinary Panel (DP), headed by a

chairman and

– an Anti-Corruption Tribunal of three individuals

who are independent of the parties and have had

no prior involvement with the case

– appeal provision to the Court of Arbitration for

Sport, based in Switzerland16

Deficits in BCB Governance

The BCB’s corporate structure is ambiguous - neither a

corporate body (ICC), nor registered as a society

(India), nor a statutory body (Pakistan)

There is no specific and formal mechanism to ensure

BCB accountability - it operates on its own having

practically no relationship of accountability with the

Ministry, NSCB, or Parliamentary Standing Committee

Although operates on it’s own, BCB is practically

subjected to government and partisan political

influence, especially in terms of choice of leadership

including election of board president and members

Election has been introduced, but the scope of partisan

interests has prevailed in the nomination process for

the position of the president and directors

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Deficits in BCB Governance

Although the BCB constitution calls for representation

from all over the country, most board members

represent Dhaka-based clubs having links with the

ruling party

The BCB Constitution was allegedly amended to serve

the interest of the current leadership

The selection of certain match venues is also alleged to

take place according to partisan interests

There are allegations of conflicts of interest – a BCB

director coached a franchisee team in the BPL

Other than the BCB Anti-corruption Code, age-old penal

code and ACC Act, no specific law exists to address

corruption in sports in Bangladesh, nor any particular

set of rules, regulations or protocols for the

investigation of allegations of corruption in cricket

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Constraints related to BPL

BPL was introduced in 2012 in an ad hoc manner without

proper policies and rules for the tournament

In keeping with global and regional trends, BPL also became

a huge money-making mechanism, making the game

vulnerable to corruption

The franchisees determined fees and rates of payment of

players without following any well-defined criteria

The BCB and the franchisees failed to secure permission

from the NBR and Bangladesh Bank for the income

generating activities or for payments in foreign currency

Cash transactions created the scope of tax evasion

Some Franchisees were unable to pay some players’ signing

fees

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Like it’s parallels in other countries, BPL, played in the

Twenty20 format came as a quick profit-making venture for

cricketers, teams, organizers and other stakeholders

The increased flow of money has exposed cricket to higher

risk of bribery and other illegal practices, including match-

fixing, spot fixing, illegal betting etc.

Former national captain, who made history in 2001 to be the

youngest player to score test century – was involved in

spot-fixing in various matches, and was punished

An umpire was also involved in match-fixing, who was

banned by the BCB (2013) for ten years for allegedly

agreeing to give decisions in exchange unauthorized

payment

Money the spoiler

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A Pakistani citizen, suspected of match-fixing in BPL,

was held while trying to enter the players’ zone illegally,

An Indian national was arrested three times for alleged

involvement in illegal betting related to the T20 World

Cup in 2014

During BPL-2 one of the franchisees was involved in

match-fixing. A tribunal formed by BCB found one of

the owners of the team guilty while another faced the

same fate upon appeal. Both were banned from cricket

for 10 years

Ironically, the role of ACSU of ICC was debatable as it

did not exercise its authority to call off the match, and

allowed it to go ahead despite knowing about risk of

match-fixing in advance

Money the spoiler

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Promoting cricket governance and preventing

corruption in all forms including match-fixing are

indispensable for sustaining the spirit and hope

associated with the game

The BCB has recently made efforts to strengthen its

Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), by taking action such as

international training of the relevant personnel and

conducting orientation ahead of tournaments

As a result of advocacy by TIB and thanks to BCB

support the country’s national cricket team took a

pledge to ‘Say No to Corruption’ on the eve of the

International Anti-Corruption Day 2013, demonstrating

their public commitment to abstain from corruption

Looking ahead

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Recommendations

1. An independent Office of Ombudsman for Cricket should

be set up, empowered to investigate and prosecute

allegations of corruption and irregularities in the game

2. Specific legal provisions should be created to criminalize

match-fixing, spot-fixing and other forms of cheating and

corruption

3. The accountability framework of BCB must be

streamlined, making it reportable to the MoYS and

accountable to the Parliamentary Standing Committee

4. The ACU of BCB must be provided the necessary human

and technical skills to address risks of corruption

5. The ACU should be transformed into Integrity and Anti-

Corruption Unit (IACU), to strengthen its preventive and

monitoring role consistent with the National Integrity

Strategy 23

Recommendations

6. All stockholders involved in cricket matches and

tournaments, especially the franchisees, managers,

coaches, captains, players and media sponsors should

formally sign a commitment to uphold the Anti-

Corruption Code

7. Every income earner out of cricket as well as BCB

Board members and officials should be encouraged to

proactively disclose income and wealth statement and

should be subjected to disciplinary action if income

and wealth are disproportionate to legitimate earnings

8. Specific programmes of information, education and

communication need to be undertaken for ethical

enrichment of the young cricketers at all levels

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Thank you